Previous
Sharifa Salah El Dine
Ibrahim works at Firdaus’s industrial company and leads a “revolutionary” group campaigning for workers’ rights. Firdaus and Ibrahim briefly fall in love and tell each other all about their lives, their pasts, and their fears, baring their souls to each other. Firdaus willingly has sex with Ibrahim for her own pleasure. However, Ibrahim betrays Firdaus and marries the company chairman’s daughter, since this will benefit his career. This betrayal crushes Firdaus, and she decides that principled men use their tenderness to get sex for free, rather than paying for it.
Ibrahim Quotes in Woman at Point Zero
The Woman at Point Zero quotes below are all either spoken by Ibrahim or refer to Ibrahim. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 2 Quotes
All I can remember are two rings of intense white surrounded by two circles of intense black. I only had to look into them for the white to become whiter and the black even blacker, as though sunlight was pouring into them from some magical source neither on earth, nor in the sky.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Firdaus has little memory of her mother, but clearly remembers the way her eyes felt—though no actual details about them. This description of Firdaus’s mothers eyes is repeated almost verbatim when Firdaus recalls both Miss Iqbal and Ibrahim’s eyes. This early passage establishes eyes as a symbol throughout the book, as well as the motif of light flowing through them. Firdaus often dwells on eyes, which represent her perception of a person’s inner character. The image of sunlight pouring through her mother’s eyes suggests that she remembers her mother as someone who gave life, compassion, and support, which flowed out Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a.
As a prostitute I was not myself, my feelings did not arise from within me. Nothing could really hurt me and make me suffer then the way I was suffering now. Never had I felt so humiliated as I felt this time. Perhaps as a prostitute I had known so deep a humiliation that nothing really counted.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
When Ibrahim betrays Firdaus’s love by suddenly marrying a different, wealthier woman, Firdaus feels a greater pain and humiliation than ever before in her life. Firdaus’s claim suggests that, though disassociation removes her from acting and responding in the real world, it protects her emotionally. Although Firdaus has been violated and abused her entire life, her reflection that “nothing really counted” indicates that she expected and hoped for nothing else. Physical pain could be endured, since it is what she expected. By contrast, the powerful emotional pain that Firdaus feels from the only sexual relationship she did not disassociate from Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas
A successful prostitute is better than a misled saint. All women are victims of deception. Men impose deception on women and punish them for being deceived, force them down to the lowest level and punish them for falling so low, bind them in marriage and then chastise them with menial service for life, or insults, or blows.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
After Ibrahim betrays her, Firdaus leave her “respectable” life behind her, seeing no point in trying to maintain the illusion of a world not dominated by transactional relationships. Although this is an intensely cynical view of men and women’s relationships, Firdaus makes several notable points. The “deception” she refers to has multiple angles: there is the deception that women need to be dependent on men and cannot fend for themselves, which traps young women in bad marriages and convinces office workers to let their bosses have sex with them so they won’t be fired. There is also the deception that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perfer
Get the entire Woman at Point Zero LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Ibrahim Character Timeline in Woman at Point Zero
The timeline below shows where the character Ibrahim appears in Woman at Point Zero. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2
...night, while Firdaus sits alone in the dark, she sees a shape in the darkness. Ibrahim, one of the company’s employees, approaches. He sits next to Firdaus and asks why she...
(full context)
Whenever Firdaus sees Ibrahim, she tries to speak but cannot. She listens to him speak at a revolutionary meeting...
(full context)
Ibrahim becomes chairman of a revolutionary committee and Firdaus devotes all her spare time to working...
(full context)
One day, Firdaus sees Ibrahim across the courtyard. A crowd of people gather around him, and his eyes seem different...
(full context)
Ibrahim’s betrayal causes Firdaus more pain than she’s ever known in her entire life. As a...
(full context)
...man picks Firdaus up. As she lies in his bed, she reflects that men like Ibrahim use their cleverness and virtue to get “what other men buy with money.” She sees...
(full context)
...ripping every single man she ever knew to pieces: father, uncle, Marzouk, Bayoumi, Di’aa, and Ibrahim. The prince is shocked, and exclaims that Firdaus must truly be a princess; he’d thought...
(full context)
